Gemini Cooperation Explained: What the New Container Network Means for Reliability and Ports
For years, shippers and ports have planned around unpredictable container schedules. Gemini (Maersk + Hapag-Lloyd) is one of the biggest attempts to change that, not by adding more strings, but by redesigning how cargo...
Top 10 U.S. Policy Missteps that Shook Global Shipping in 2025
When shipowners talk about “policy risk” they usually mean sanctions or a warzone closing for a few weeks. In 2025 the United States added a new kind of risk to the mix with USTR...
EU ETS Voyage Cost Lab: What Each Route Really Costs You in 2026
When shipowners talk about EU ETS costs, the conversation often stops at “X tonnes times carbon price.” In reality, the bill changes sharply by route, charterparty, and how much of a voyage is inside...
From Carbon to Chokepoints. Here are 17 Hidden Costs Shipowners are Mispricing in 2026 Budgets
Most 2026 fleet budgets are built around fuel curves, TCE targets and OPEX lines that feel familiar, while the real risk sits in a new layer of carbon costs, chokepoint detours and compliance traps...
VLCC, Capesize, Container: Which Segments Are Really Under-Ordered Going Into 2027?
Orderbook charts in 2025 tell three different stories: VLCCs are finally rebuilding after years of near zero fleet growth, dry bulk (including Capesize) is still relatively disciplined, and container owners are sitting on a...
The New Chokepoint Map: 9 Flashpoints Every Shipowner Watches Before Fixing a Voyage
Moving in to 2026 the “chokepoint map” is no longer a theory exercise. Before every long-haul fixture, owners and chartering desks are weighing very real trade-offs between Red Sea transits, Cape detours, war-risk premiums,...
IMO’s Updated Cyber Guidelines: 10 Practical Changes Shipping Companies Can’t Ignore in 2026
Most shipping companies now “tick the box” on cyber in their SMS, but the IMO’s updated Guidelines on Maritime Cyber Risk Management quietly raised the bar. The new version makes it much clearer that...
AI is Unlikely to Kill These 22 Maritime Jobs – It May Make Them Wildly More Valuable by 2030
In every serious scenario for “AI in shipping,” the same conclusion keeps coming back: the tech changes how people work, but it doesn’t remove the need for human judgment in high-risk, high-value parts of...
The 25 Most Overlooked Cost Levers in Ship Operations (That Aren’t Fuel or Crew)
Most owners spend their time on day rates, bunker costs, and crew budgets, yet a lot of quiet money moves through operational decisions that rarely make it into board packs. The 25 levers below...
2026 Port Cost Benchmark Book: What a “Normal” PDA Looks Like by Vessel Type and Region
Port costs are one of the last big spend areas in shipping that still get approved with too little context. In 2026, with freight margins more sensitive to carbon, fuel spreads, and schedule pressure,...
The 2026 Green Premium: Who Pays and Who Gets Paid For Cleaner Ships – And Why
By 2026 the green premium in shipping has turned into a real cost line that someone has to absorb. On one side, large cargo and passenger ships trading with Europe are pulled into the...
10 Port Call Bottlenecks That Quietly Destroy TCE (And How Operators Fix Them)
When a ship misses its ideal berth window because a document was not ready or a surveyor did not get clear instructions, nobody sees a dramatic headline in the log. It just appears later...
Top KPIs your Fleet and Chartering Teams should be Showing you in 2026
C suites are no longer satisfied with generic “utilization is good” and “markets are volatile” updates. They want a short list of hard KPIs that show whether fleet and chartering teams are actually turning...
15 Real AI Use Cases Ship Operators Will Pay For In 2026
AI in shipping has quietly moved from slides and pilots to real line items in OPEX and capex: owners are now paying for specific tools that shave fuel, tighten EU ETS exposure, reduce off-hire,...
Dry Bulk After Geneva: How 2026 Trade Flows Could Shift for Coal, Iron Ore and Agri
Geneva Dry made one thing clear. Dry bulk is drifting into a transition phase where the three core pillars of demand will not move in lockstep. Coal looks set to give back volumes in...
8 Vessel Upgrades With the Fastest Payback in 2026
Shipping margins tighten fast when fuel and carbon costs move. If you’re ranking 2026 upgrades by “how quickly does this pay itself back,” start with changes that cut drag and restore propeller efficiency. The...
The New Maritime Insurance Stack: War-Risk, Cyber and Parametric Weather. What you need to know in Under 5 Minutes
Modern voyage risk is a stack, not a single policy. Detours, cyber events, and severe weather hit cashflow in different ways, so smart operators layer war-risk, cyber, and parametric covers to keep routes, systems,...
Where Detours Inflate Bunker Bills Right Now
Detours are no longer the exception. On several big trades the long way has become the plan, and every extra mile turns into real money. Longer passages mean more VLSFO burned, more charter days,...
10 Ways AI Is Quietly Changing Voyage Planning
AI has already slipped into voyage planning screens in ways that most crews and even some shore teams barely notice. Behind the scenes it is quietly steering routes, nudging speeds, reshuffling port calls and...
The Great Green Fuel Race in 2026: LNG, Methanol, Ammonia and the Nuclear Option
Shipping’s green fuel race in 2026 is not a clean sprint. LNG, methanol, ammonia and even nuclear are all lining up on the start line, but they are running very different races. Regulations are...